No one is free from criticism. Harmful ideas should be condemned, when they are demonstrably harmful. But theist beliefs are such a vast range and diversity of ideas, some harmful, some useful, some healing, some vivifying, and still others having served as potent drivers of movements for justice; that to lump all theist religious belief into one category and attack the whole of it, only demonstrates your ignorance of theology, and is in fact bigotry.

By saying that religious and superstitious beliefs should be disrespected, or otherwise belittling, or stigmatizing religion and supernatural beliefs as a whole, you have already established the first level on the “Pyramid of Hate”, as well as the first of the “10 Stages of Genocide.”

If your religion is atheism, that’s perfectly valid. If someone is doing something harmful with a religious belief as justification, that specific belief should be challenged. But if you’re crossing the line into bigotry, you’re as bad as the very people you’re condemning.

Antitheism is a form of supremacy in and of itself.

"In other words, it is quite clear from the writings of the “four horsemen” that “new atheism” has little to do with atheism or any serious intellectual examination of the belief in God and everything to do with hatred and power.

Indeed, “new atheism” is the ideological foregrounding of liberal imperialism whose fanatical secularism extends the racist logic of white supremacy. It purports to be areligious, but it is not. It is, in fact, the twin brother of the rabid Christian conservatism which currently feeds the Trump administration’s destructive policies at home and abroad – minus all the biblical references."

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/5/4/the-resurrection-of-new-atheism/

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/2/21/can-atheists-make-their-case-without-devolving-into-bigotry/

  • @[email protected]
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    51 year ago

    I would rather believe in a fairy tale book about a unicorn farting rainbows than the bible, quarn and other bs.

    • QuaffPotionsOP
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      11 year ago

      That would be perfectly valid too, as long as you aren’t causing harm.

      • Bizarroland
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        1 year ago

        All of the bad things that are absolutely true about aleister Crowley aside, his phrase, “and it harm none, do as you will shall be the whole of the law” has always been useful to me.

        I’ll sit my happy ass in the corner and say my prayers to my God in secret.

        I’ll discuss religion with the people that bring it up into conversation and defend my stances on it should it come to it.

        I won’t shove my religion in your face, I won’t make you feel bad for not adhering to my weird set of personal rules, and should I pray on your behalf I will do so without the expectation that you have to join my side in order to receive the benefits.

        And, assuming that I follow those rules perfectly, if somebody has a problem with that then I will address that issue but I’m not going to change what I believe or who I am to make you feel comfortable.